Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny after a since-deleted Thanksgiving Day post resurfaced in which he argued the holiday should be a time for reparations rather than gratitude. The post, first reported by The Washington Free Beacon in May 2026, adds to a growing list of controversial comments the Democrat has scrubbed from his social media as he prepares for a tight race against Republican Mike Rogers.
In the post, dated Thanksgiving 2019, El-Sayed wrote: “Just a reminder this #Thanksgiving. This country was built on the systematic annihilation of Indigenous Peoples, whose ancestors suffer some of the highest rates of homelessness, joblessness, and mortality today.” He added, “We owe so much more than ‘thanks.’ Time for Reparations.” In a follow-up reply, he corrected himself to say “descendants” instead of “ancestors.”
The post was later deleted, but not before it was archived online. El-Sayed’s message predates similar anti-Thanksgiving remarks made by Wisconsin Democrat Francesca Hong, who lost her gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. Hong had posted in November 2020, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621,” adding that the holiday celebrated “colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed indigenous folx [sic] and women.” Conservative commentator Scott Jennings noted, “Not for nothing but the dream of killing Thanksgiving was alive and well in Abdul El-Sayed long before Hong came along.”
El-Sayed’s Thanksgiving post was not an isolated call for reparations. In a campaign stop captured on video by The Gander, he said: “I believe we owe it to engage in reparations. … There are so many ways in which we need to have a conversation about reparations. We need to invest in reparations. We need reparations in this country.”
The Michigan Democrat has also deleted posts in which he argued for defunding the police, suggested replacing the Second Amendment with a “right to have health care,” and declared that “fireworks suck.” He also criticized Michigan’s beloved Mackinac Island and claimed football was a breeding ground for “toxic masculinity.”
Campaign Implications
These revelations come as El-Sayed faces questions about his fitness for office in a state where cultural issues are playing a prominent role in the Senate race. His campaign has not commented on the deleted posts, but the resurfacing of these remarks could complicate his appeal to moderate voters in the general election. The race against Rogers is expected to be closely contested, and the GOP has already seized on El-Sayed’s past statements as evidence that he is out of step with Michigan’s values.
The Washington Free Beacon’s reporting on the Thanksgiving post has been amplified by conservative media, but the original post and others were deleted by El-Sayed himself, suggesting an awareness of their potential political fallout. Whether voters will punish him for these remarks or view them as ancient history remains to be seen.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/abdul-el-sayed-vilified-beloved-american-holiday-pushed-for-day-of-reparations-instead